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Lifestyle // Women's

Project Runway All Stars – Week 4, the Gelato Episode

This recap contains spoilers! Stop reading if you don’t want to know who won or lost. Also, reading this may lead to cravings for gelato. Here we go. A guy wheels out a gelato cart, and the designers take turns picking from a finite list of flavors. In turn they are handed a cone with a corresponding swatch of color. (The names are actually more evocative than the colors. Vanilla Madagascar=white.) The instructions are simply to be creative and be quick, because this is fastest challenge in Project Runway history. They have merely 6 hours to work, so they don’t get to go shopping at Mood; they have to pull fabric from a limited selection dubbed Mini Mood. The guest judges are model Miranda Kerr, who will allegedly wear the winning design to an industry event, and Diane von Furstenberg. To impress the queen of contemporary dresses in a hurry, the designers must rely on their basic sense of color and silhouette. This lays bare the designers’ weaknesses, from a flawed eye for color to poor technique to bad judgment. Kara’s chocolate-cayenne spectrum of ruffles makes her model look pregnant, but April gets cut because her “blueberry” dress is sloppy, spooky and randomly styled. April cries, but reminds us she is only 22, and will be fine. For the win, the judges are torn between Mondo’s “cantaloupe” color-blocked, daytime caftan and Michael’s “grapefruit” satin evening caftan. Miranda, a new mom, is worried about cleavage, but regardless, Michael wins. For more fun with Project Runway All Stars, visit NeimanMarcus.com/projectrunwayallstars and Shop. Vote. Win!